Hashing Out the New Age

American social scientist David Ronfeldt, whose TIMN laid out the road map

Belgian Michel Bauwens, P2P Philosopher Extraordinaire

Peer-to-peer (P2P) is a decentralized communications model in which each party has the same capabilities and either party can initiate a communication session.  

American Paul Glover, for more than a quarter century showing people how their communities can solve their own problems

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the job in earlier days
When nobody in the palace had any idea how rural Thailand actually worked he embarked on his own field research.  The result was  Sufficiency Philosophy, laying out how villagers can be fully independent. 
  

American physicist and independent communities visionary
Neil Gershenfeld in a Fab Lab

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American engineer Tom Waite, inventor of Argonaut portable water purifier and CEO Argonaut Water ; Ethiopia's Prince Emmias Sahle-Selassi, intellectual powerhouse behind Water Initiative for Africa, with Argonaut Villager water purifier, which sets rural communities free of dependence on state-run water treatment schemes that don't deliver.


How Argonaut Villager Works

American Katherine Lucey, teaching rural Ugandan women they don't need to wait on the state to cleanly and safely light their homes

Note the number of Americans featured. So when people say American influence is waning in the world, they're actually talking about the waning of a social model that no longer works. There are plenty of Americans, many more than on this list, who're hashing out an influential new model. 

What could the new model be called? Too soon for a name, but it'll be something like Enlightened Self-Sufficiency.

The outline of the new model has already taken shape. The task now is creating action paths within the model that can be readily communicated.

It's a myth that most people are sheep-like. It's just that most people aren't able to work out for themselves a new way of doing things when the routine one isn't working for them any longer.

But when you consider that much of the do-it-yourself approach is actually dependent on transmitted lore, the flaw in the 'sheeple' argument becomes evident. In many things we have to be shown how it's done before we can do it ourselves.

All this is very far from the political paradigm that has dominated for two centuries. But to attempt to bring change within that paradigm is like trying to get a horse and buggy to travel 100 mph.

The problem isn't the need for a political revolution, which is unnecessary and even counterproductive. The problem is whether the new model will be fully operational by the time humanity needs it most.

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